LONDON, UK, 27th May 2009: Canon announced today it will release a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II allowing users to manually control exposure when shooting video. The new firmware will be available for download from 2 June 2009 on Canon Europe’s support web site.
Following the launch of the EOS 5D Mark II in September 2008, Canon’s Research and Development team has listened closely to customer feedback to develop additions to the camera’s movie recording functionality.

Allowing EOS 5D Mark II owners to achieve even more stunning video results with the camera, the firmware update will include the following manual controls when shooting video:

Full aperture selection

ISO speed: Auto, 100 – 6400 and H1

Shutter speed: 1/30th – 1/4000th second

The EOS 5D Mark II integrates full HD movie capability into a high-end 21.1 Megapixel camera; opening a multitude of new possibilities for photojournalists and news photographers. Since its launch the camera has proved its appeal to professionals working in diverse fields, from studio and wedding to nature and travel. Now, following customer feedback, Canon has improved functionality for professional video users, further unleashing the potential of the EOS 5D Mark II for cinematographers and photographers alike.

It isn’t perfect by a long shot, but we’re making very swift progress this holiday weekend. I found the VRAM and was able to write a small task that monitors the audio levels at 30 Hz and draws a very simple level meter on the top of the screen. It is calibrated with 5 dB tick marks, but the ballistics are bad and it isn’t synced with the redraw period (causing it to flicker), but we’re running real code doing real work on the camera!

I promise you this is the most boring 45 second video you will ever see, but it provides a glimpse of the promise of what we can do with this camera.

EDIT: I found the calibration table for the audio device as well as some bugs in my drawing code. I’ve added calibrated 5 dB tick marks (-40 on the left to 0 dB on the right) and wrote some simplistic ballistics for the peak with a few second delay. The video is a new one to reflect the changes.

As an early goal, I have disabled the AGC for on the AK4646 audio chip that the 5D uses by overriding the sound_dev_task() at 0xFF856E60 to call audio_set_alc_off() at 0xFF856B14. The level is much too hot due to the wrong levels selected (it defaults to max gain?) but there is no shift in quiet scenes anymore. This is an easy first step that provides a proof-of-concept modification for the 1.0.7 firmware.

I can also log the audio levels as they are being sampled, which will make it possible to do on-screen level meters at some point in the future. My next step is figuring out how to add menus for the AGC disabling, then tackling the MVR_start_record() and LVAE_* functions.

Canon, we are tired of waiting for you to act. So, without you, we will first fix the obvious problems, then we’ll make it better. We’ll probably help you sell more cameras, too.

Canon Rumors just received a hint about a firmware update in the wild for the 5D Mark II:

I’ve been told that Canon lent 4 5D Mark II’s to a certain company with a firmware version not currently available.
The firmware is geared towards video. No word on whether or not some manual controls have been added.
I’ve been asked not to mention the industry or the project, so I won’t.

If anyone get one of these, please feel free to share them with me/us. 🙂